St. Anselm College Grad Relishes Time with Trump

This article originally appeared in Portraits Magazine

Donald Trump called him a maniac, a disaster, a genius and a skillful leader—all in one breath.

For Tarek Saab, of Fort Worth, it was just another day in the boardroom on NBC’s "The Apprentice." For two months last fall, the Saint Anselm College Presidential Scholar left his job as a global marketing manager at Texas Instruments for a chance to lead one of Trump’s multimillion-dollar real estate ventures.

Saab’s boardroom "brawl" with Charmaine, which led to both players’ downfall, was one of the series’ more explosive verbal exchanges. "You have a good day; you have a bad day. You’re a wonderful leader; you’re bad as a follower," Trump said. "You have these outstanding moments and then you have these moments of great, great failure...Tarek, you’re fired!"

An hour later, Saab recalls with a laugh, he and Charmaine enjoyed dinner together in New York City. He blames his outburst on exhaustion and says there is no animosity between the two competitors. "It’s very difficult to keep your composure in a high stress situation when you haven’t slept much in days."

The ups and downs of Tarek Saab’s network television debut were there for all of prime time America to see, and for Saab and his family some of it was tough to watch.

Those who know him well, including Sue Gabert of Campus Ministry and Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., describe him as smart, witty and competitive, while compassionate and down-to-earth.

What did NBC’s producers think of him?

"I think I was cast an egomaniac MENSA boy…a very controversial character who seemed to get on Trump’s bad side very early on." MENSA, an elite society whose members have an IQ in the top 2 percent of the population, became a bit of a joke among players, he says. "Coffeemaker’s broken; ask the MENSA guy. Need to do long division; go see the MENSA guy."

As the candidate most likely to end up in the boardroom, Saab says what viewers do not always see are the relationships, respect and hard work that go into completing each task. Sales and marketing, event management and unthinkable deadlines play heavily into each assignment, and sleep is virtually non-existent. Campaigns for clients like Sam’s Club, 7-11, Pontiac and Gillette went from concept to completion in 36 hours. "By the time we got to the 10^th task I was exhausted, I had lost 15 pounds, and I had a terrible diet," he says. "On the other hand it is amazing how adaptable you can be when put in a situation where you have no other choice but to perform extremely well."

Aside from the grueling schedule and cutthroat competition, there were also moments of pride and teamwork that reminded Saab of his days working in Campus Ministry. He likens the opportunity to renovate a Boys and Girls Club to the service work done on Spring Break Alternative. "It’s tough because you see those kids in a poor city and you really want to do a bang-up job and give them something that they’ve never seen before. Unfortunately you only have a day and a half to do it. I wish we could have had a week to complete that task."

While the title of "Apprentice" was not to be for the 3-2 cooperative engineering grad, Saab re-emerged toward the series finale to help Sean, the eventual winner, to victory.

In assembling his "dream team," Sean turned to Tarek who came highly recommended by other players. "He is an amazing strategist (and) he has a spark that can’t be taught," said teammate Andrea. "I even admire the swagger that you have," Sean added, in his trademark British accent.

A former retreat leader who also enjoyed spending time at the monastery as a student, Saab says life after "The Apprentice" will include elements of spirituality, marketing and motivational speaking. He plans to publish an online magazine geared toward young Catholic men, and his line of clothing called Lionheart Apparel is set to launch in mid-August 2006 (www.lionheartapparel.com).

He is also writing a book, Gut Check: Confronting Love, Work and Manhood in Your Twenties, and describes it as a guide for young men struggling with the "quarter life crisis."

"I’ve always been interested in giving young adults a perspective that is radically different from what they see in the media or what society is telling them," he says, adding that part of his perspective comes from lessons learned in the college’s Humanities Program, Portraits of Human Greatness.

He says greatness might be something simple like an interaction with a colleague, the way you speak, or the people with whom you associate. And while greatness may not always be evident in Trump’s boardroom, Saab believes, "We have a lot of opportunities to see it…I think that’s what the education at Saint Anselm is really about, inspiring students to look for ways to be great. I’m 27 years old, and I’m still working on it."